This patent is directed to a casino gaming apparatus, which could be either an individual gaming unit or a casino gaming system having a plurality of gaming units, each gaming unit including multiple display panels made up of a single, subdivided display.
Conventional casino gaming units often included multiple display panels for displaying a variety of images. The gaming unit consisted of three separate display panels: the top glass, the bottom (or “belly”) glass, and the primary display. The top glass and the belly glass were typically static images that provided game instructions, game information, images to attract players to the game, or images otherwise associated with the games that could be played on the gaming unit, though active images were sometimes used. The top glass sometimes used active images to display a bonus game. The top glass was typically part of a top box that could be removed from the remainder of the gaming unit. To change the bonus game, the entire top box had to be removed. The displays have included active images that may vary as part of a player-attract sequence or as part of the game play. Sometimes the game play would require the player's attention on a different display or area of a display, though this was difficult to communicate to the player which, in turn, limited player interaction. A front panel was part of the game unit housing and included a control panel. The front panel was sometimes designed to correspond to the game or bonus game of the gaming unit. In some cases, the top box was designed to correspond to a bonus game displayed on the top glass.